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Chi Alpha director Brad Lewis mentioned last night that NDSU and Minnesota State Moorhead have had plenty of students come down with the swine flu. And though that news is true for campuses nationwide, I sadly hadn’t connected that issue to potential college ministry activity.

My thickness bums me out. I (and we) should be really good at recognizing “reachable moments,” opportunities for ministry that connect with the present Zeitgeist. Serving others involves connecting with their felt needs when we can, and “dealing with swine flu” is certainly a felt need for many of our campuses.

So, better late than never, this week’s Fridea:

Minister in light of the swine flu.

I would love to hear any ways ministries have connected with their campus / with students around this issue. Please post a comment if you’ve done it or heard about it!

Obviously, our response will vary campus-to-campus, and maybe this isn’t something your campus needs. But here are some ways campus ministries just might minister in light of the present “swinegeist.”

• Help with the campus’s swine flu prevention / awareness efforts
• Passing on to your group any messages the campus wants them to know
• Serve students who are quarantined or otherwise swinfluenza’d. (Cookies? Class notes? Tutoring afterward? Nice notes? Serenading?)
• Pray for students with it
• Pray for students not to get it
• Help in similar ways with faculty and staff
• Work with faculty to help out, as they face difficulties of irregular student attendance, etc.
• Help in similar ways off-campus – in the community
• Talk to administrators, staff, and faculty about other actions they’re taking – and consider any ways your ministry might be able to pitch in, complement, or just plain love

Truly integrating with our campuses means connecting on the things they find important sometimes, even if it’s not the brightest spot on our own radar screens. Ministering in light of swine flu might just be a simple, servant-y way to play helpful roles among the campus community.

Find synopses of all the Frideas – interesting little college ministry methods that might be worth a shot – over here.

written from Motel 6, Fargo, ND

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Road Trip 13: Day 26 recap
recap: finally made it up to Fargo; exploring some ministry at NDSU and Minnesota State Moorhead (see all explorations so far)
new campuses: Minnesota State Moorhead (#20), North Dakota State (#21)
new states: North Dakota (#10), Minnesota (#11)
T-shirt: the Wildcat tribe of Cal State Chico
friday: mostly a much-needed Sabbath, it looks like (I’d appreciate your prayers for rest and encouragement!)